Accelerating progress against cancer – and what it means for insurance

More than 3,600 years separate us from what's likely the oldest surviving clinical description of cancer, an ancient Egyptian medical papyrus remarkable not only for its carefully observed account of an aggressive tumour but also for its humbling conclusion: “There is no treatment.”

Fortunately, people facing a cancer diagnosis today have a vast array of weapons to fight this complex disease. Emblematic of how far oncology has come, our understanding of cancer biology has made big strides. Awareness of risk factors like smoking has also transformed cancer's trajectory, as cessation efforts have sharply cut incidence and death.

The tethers that once slowed humanity's fight against cancer are loosening as innovations in diagnostics, AI-enabled drug discovery, gene editing, and insights into the drivers of tumour growth promise to reinforce one another. Coming years could produce gains that once might have taken decades, helping more people live longer and better than ever before.

Still, cancer remains the second leading cause of death globally after cardiovascular disease and the leading driver of life insurance claims, underscoring how this disease area persists as both a health risk and a core insurance challenge.

In 2026, the Swiss Re Life & Health Reinsurance team will make cancer a core focus area, as we examine important risk considerations for our industry in coming months. This effort includes an update of the Cancer Calculator in Life Guide, our market-leading life insurance underwriting manual. This reboot will reflect the latest evidence, combining ease of use with cutting-edge insights to help life insurers assess cancer risk accurately and sustainably.

Our Life & Health Re experts will also be examining how emerging diagnostics, an area my colleagues have written about previously, offers hope for finding tumours early before symptoms appear or cancer spreads.  Still, liquid biopsies for multicancer early detection (MCEDs) can add ambiguity, too, as false positives, cancers of uncertain or non-specific origin, and potential anti-selection pose challenges for patients, clinicians and actuaries alike.

Moreover, our teams will explore advances in cancer immunotherapy, from cell-based approaches like CAR-T therapies that have aided the fight against blood cancers to checkpoint inhibitors that help the body's defensive system recognise and attack tumours.

We'll cover next-generation approaches, too, including mRNA platforms that were used against COVID-19 and which are now showing promise for expanded applicability in personalised cancer vaccines. Clearly, there are exciting things on the horizon.

Additionally, Swiss Re is also planning an in-depth exploration of the future of cancer care and insurance. This publication will include topics like forward-looking projections, efforts to expand cover for cancer survivors, regulatory considerations, challenges to the life insurance model from the "Right to be Forgotten" (RTBF), and new coverage products.

Cancer isn't a single disease, and the fight against it won't evolve in a single direction. Swiss Re’s focus on cancer over the course of 2026 underscores our deep commitment to helping life and health insurance underwriters keep pace with this growing complexity.

For instance, while lung and breast cancer gains are fueled by prevention, screening and precision treatments, we see emerging risks linked to ageing populations and lifestyle factors. Case in point: cancer incidence linked to metabolic dysfunction that includes obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance merits attention, as do the implications of behavior modification and GLP-1 drugs that may result in sustained weight loss. Ideally, cancer risk will decline over time.

At the same time, possible environmental exposures to chemicals such as PFAS may exert upward pressure on cancer rates and mortality. Since these influences are likely to unfold over decades, their full impact is difficult to quantify, making this an area that will be critical for insurers to track and evaluate for years to come.

Another area to watch is how artificial intelligence may improve diagnostics, predict clinical responses, strengthen trials, and assist in discovering new molecules against once-undruggable targets. Still, AI is an enabler, not a shortcut; safeguards are essential, because tumours and treatments may behave differently in people than in algorithms.

Cancer remains a formidable foe, but it is no longer defined by finality. The contrast between our expanding 21^st century options and the sobering conclusion reached on that Egyptian papyrus couldn’t be starker: for a growing number of cancers, there are more and more treatments. This should fill us with optimism about the potential for further life expectancy gains.

Even so, fighting cancer requires balancing competing truths: outcomes are improving, but the disease burden remains substantial and unevenly distributed. For insurers, understanding the universe of cancer risks has grown more complex as options to address them multiply.

This paradox creates opportunities but also fresh questions for individuals, health and medical professionals, and our industry about how to expand on historical gains against cancer, while further narrowing the insurance protection gap.

With Swiss Re's focus on cancer, we aim to reinforce the important role our industry plays in supporting the market conditions that translate into effective, science-led oncological care – care that is accessible to patients, sustainable for payers, and viable for health systems – so benefits are shared as broadly as possible.